Last Saturday we went back up again and took turns skiing. We went to the "bend on the road" on Mt. Rose Highway, coming from Reno before you hit Mt. Rose Ski Resort. It was such a perfect blue bird day!

Taking a breat to eat

Back to base

Take a look at these tele guys - and their backcountry skiing adventure above Reno http://blog.robertpayne.net/2007/03/06/backcountry-skiing-above-reno/.

This is a great post from my friend Robert http://blog.robertpayne.net/2007/02/25/skiing-in-the-sierras/

Wow - it’s been a while since my last post. Tele girl is back — and now with almost 7-month old tele baby!

Over a week ago, on Saturday 2/17 my hubby and I decided to try backcountry skiing with Cielo for the first time. We had a blast! She loved the big girl backpack and we enjoyed the chance to get some tele turns in. We checked out the Meadows and the snow was better than we expected. This winter had been so slow… with little snow… but now that seems to have changed!

Are we ready daddy?

I’m having so much fun that I can just fall asleep while you guys ski

I like it when we take breaks - yay!

So you are wondering about this weekend, since it snowed non-stop. Well, we decided to go to the gym instead – not for lack of desire but trying to wait for the sunny powder days so Cielo can learn to love this — instead of wondering "why do you make me do this?" So hopefully you’ll see and hear more of us in the next couple of months.

Bring it on!

Here is a funny video of a beginner snowboarder who discovers the least of his problems is the low battery on his camcorder!

This video makes me itch for winter.

Every weekend I tell my hubby “this is the last weekend of skiing for us” because I am 100% convinced that it’ll warm up during the following week and the snow will be too hard for me and the belly… But it keeps snowing!

So this was another backcountry weekend, and we had to take advantage of it! How can you resist all that powder?? You simply can’t! We went to the Tahoe Meadows on Saturday and couldn’t believe how awesome the snow was. Sunday we skinned up at the bend on the road on Mt Rose Highway and went up pass Mt Rose ski resort, while it never stopped snowing. The snow was getting to be a bit more slush/mash but still soft enough for a pregnant woman.

Here’s me deciding if I should turn or not — the snow is getting heavier

Losing my balance due to baby weight (or at least that sounds like a good excuse!)

Saturday was stormy and windy so we decided to work on taxes and work out at the gym — while Sunday was a true bluebird day and we took advantage of it!

We left the house around 1:30pm and got to the Mt Rose Wilderness area shortly after that. To our surprise, we found awesome powder –yes! although it was so warm, there was still powder from the storm the day before. Some areas were a bit crusty due to the high winds the day before, but for the most part — if you stayed in the trees you got good powder! Spring skiing with powder in late March is just an amazing combo.

Here’s my six-month pregnant belly, enjoying the warm spring day:

Snowboarding at Mt. Rose

It’s been an incredible year for snowboarding. It seems like every other week brings another storm, usually during the week, that dumps fresh powder on the mountains just in time for the weekend.

With all that in mind, last weekend I took my teenage son and some of his buddies to the closest skiing to Reno, which is the Mount Rose Ski Resort, for a little snowboarding. Mt. Rose is only 25 miles southwest of Reno (via U.S. 395 and the Mount Rose Highway).

During this visit, they wanted to check out the Slide Lodge, which is a second base facility for Mt. Rose skiers and boarders located east of the Main Lodge. The Slide Lodge is the gateway to Slide Bowl, a kind of secondary skiing area at Mt. Rose.

The reason they wanted to hit Slide Bowl is that it’s the location of Mt. Rose’s two terrain parks designed specifically for boarders. The parks, called “Doubledown” and “Badlands,” offer a wide variety of boarding features including tables and rails.

“Doubledown” is designed as the primary “go big” course and has a roller, lots of rails, a couple of 40 to 45-foot step downs and a 250-foot table spine. “Badlands” has mostly medium-sized elements and consists of several rails, boxes and rollers, as well as two tables.

While I don’t board, it was fun to watch them race down the runs, goofing on the various features–and eating some snow more than a few times.

With only a brief break for lunch, my son and his pals played on the slopes for most of the day. I saw them catch a bit of air, skate down the rails more than a few times and, in general, have a great time enjoying all the snow we’ve been blessed with in recent months.

I wonder if it will last until Memorial Day?

Of course, another nice thing about Mt. Rose is that it’s affordable. The adult day rate is $54 ($44 for a half day), with the lifts running from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.—-Richard Moreno

The snow just keeps coming! Last week it was a full moon so a few of us ventured out in the backcountry up around Mt Rose Wilderness. The snow was light and deep and beautiful in the moonlight. Couple of days later it snowed again and we were right back out there touring around, dropping in, and having an absolute blast. Here are a couple of pics from Saturday.